Tuesday, September 25, 2007

New York Times Pegs Hillary as the Frontrunner

The Democratic primary is beginning to boil. As much as I hate using sports metaphors to sum up electoral politics, it is fair to say that it's a new game.

The debate over whether or not Hillary is truly the frontrunner has come to a close. Whether or not that's a good thing for Hillary is a different debate all together. In the past, early frontrunners have gone by the wayside in Democratic primaries. Then again, the candidate in this case isHillary Clinton, not Howard Dean, Paul Tsongas, or Gary Hart.

More interesting than Hillary's undisputed rise is the political strategy behind the concession of the Edwards campaign. Senior Advisor Joe Trippi takes every chance he gets to call Clinton queen of the race. Of course, as Adam Nagourney points out in the article linked above, he is only eager to sing her praises because it brings Obama within striking distance of Edwards.

This presents a new, though certainly forseen, dynamic to the race: Edwards and Obama will battle each other over who gets to fight a war with Hillary in the end. My money is on Obama, but I'm a little biased.